Suspect Admits Role In Death

Testimony Links Man To Victim's Car, Abduction

March 10, 2004|By J. ERIC ECKARD Rocky Mount Telegraph

NASHVILLE, N.C. — After Andre Edwards was arrested in 2001, he refused to help investigators find a missing woman and her baby who were kidnapped from a Greenville pharmacy, testimony revealed Tuesday.

Now, more than three years later in his capital murder trial, Edwards had admitted that he was responsible for Ginger Lynn Hayes' death. She and her family lived in Hampton at the time of the slaying. Edwards could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

During jury selection last month, his defense attorneys argued that he should be charged only with second-degree murder, filing a petition in which Edwards acknowledged his responsibility for Hayes' death, but said he didn't plan to kill her.

But just hours after his arrest on June 30, 2001, he denied any involvement in Hayes' abduction and accused numerous witnesses of lying against him, according to testimony from a Rocky Mount police detective who interviewed Edwards that day.

"We asked him to tell us how to find the child alive," said Rocky Mount police Sgt. Marty Clay. "But he would not give us any information. He said he didn't know what we were talking about. "

"We asked him if he thought he was going to be charged with murder, and he said yes. And we asked him if he thought he would be convicted of murder, and he said yes."

He denied being in Greenville the day of carjacking, denied driving the stolen Focus and initially denied going to the Hunter Hill Food Lion, where Hayes was seen on video with a man matching Edwards' description, Clay told the jury.

Clay also testified that he saw blood on Edwards' shoes and shirt, and confiscated the suspect's clothes for analysis.

Nicholas Hayes, Ginger Hayes' son who now is 3, was found by a passerby on a path. The boy, who was severely sunburned, was found several yards from his mother's body, earlier testimony revealed.

Hayes and her baby were kidnapped from the parking lot of the CVS in Greenville while her husband and brother were inside the store, getting snacks and drinks. The family was on their way from South Carolina to Hampton, where Jeremy Hayes, the victim's husband, was stationed at Langley Air Force Base.

Edwards already has been identified as the man who forced Ginger Hayes into the rented Ford Focus and drove away from the pharmacy. An eyewitness to the kidnapping called police to report the incident.

Several Greenville police officers testified Tuesday about responding to the abduction scene and looking for the stolen rental car.

Greenville police Cpl. Will Harrell testified that he arrived at the CVS within 30 seconds of getting the call from a police dispatcher, but he saw nothing unusual at the pharmacy.

In other testimony, the day after five people linked Edwards to the stolen rental car, two more people testified Tuesday that Edwards was driving the Focus linked to Ginger Hayes' murder.

Testimony is expected to continue this morning from FBI agents who performed DNA analysis on several pieces of evidence, including the purported murder weapon, a tire rim, which had blood and hair on it when it was found.